Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 7, 2020

Why pick up a fairy tale to read or sit down to watch a beloved Disney fairy tale classic when they all end the same way, with the boy and girl falling in love? Cinderella and her Prince get married, Snow White wakes up to Prince Charming, Ariel stays with Eric on land, Belle saves the Beast, and Philip awakens Aurora. But what happens after the book's last page is read or the movie's credits roll? How does happily ever after play out in real life? Can a maid be happy as a princess? Can a mermaid enjoy a life on two feet? Can virtual strangers make a relationship work? Countless films and sequels have tried to answer that “what’s next?” question. Entire genres of books exist to flesh out fairy tales beyond the Disney accounts (see, for example, this). Enter Disney's own live action account of "what's next?" with Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Director Joachim Rønning's surprisingly good but unsurprisingly effects-happy visual overload film about Maleficent's origins, chronologically occurring following Maleficent.

Five years have passed since the events in Maleficent. Aurora (Elle Fanning), Queen of the Moors, has been living alongside Maleficent the Fey (Angelina Jolie). Her romance with Philip (Harris Dickinson) has blossomed, and he’s proposed. She happily accepts, but can their families co-exist?. Maleficent attends a tense dinner to meet Phillip’s parents, mother Ingrith and father John (Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Lindsay). Maleficent can’t stand humans beyond Aurora, and Ingrith harbors great disdain for the Fey. A stilted dinner goes from bad to worse when Philip’s father is struck with a curse and Maleficent takes the blame. The Fey flees the castle and vanishes, leaving Aurora to face becoming a “perfect” queen without her mentor. In her absence, Maleficent discovers the truth about her own origins and the future of the Moors.

Part origin story, part sequel, and not at all anything like the classic Sleeping Beauty but rather an original story that builds on the established universe, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil more often than not works at its core, away from the visual effects, though the film admittedly tries too hard, at times, to be everything for everyone rather than fully satisfy its most fundamental needs. At that sort-of focused center is the story of Philip and Aurora’s engagement and the family dynamics involved with introducing a Fey Godmother to a human mother-in-law with a chip the size of a kingdom on her shoulder. On a deeper level, the film delves into Maleficent’s origins and attempts to explain both her powers and her reputation in the human realm where she is reviled despite being the one to break Aurora’s curse. The film is very well made, even if it's far too frequently dependent on cutesy visuals, and triumphs as a story of love against hate and identity beyond preconceptions. But it also, at times, plays like an unnecessary epilogue to a story that was heretofore complete.

Beyond the frivolities, its focus remains on love and its power, whether Phillip's love for Aurora, allowing him to find greater acceptance of the different aspects of the world around him, or the loving relationship that exists between Maleficent and Aurora, which allows each character to see the other, and those like them, in a new light. In that light diminishes the darkness, the reputation that precedes Maleficent, and produces the film's central question: is Maleficent truly evil, or does prejudice and unfounded fear cloud humanity's vision of her? Maleficent: Mistress of Evil works hard to build lore, dispel notions, and create legacy. It works quite well in the aggregate, dismissing some of the needless support that exists around it.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil's 2160p/HDR UHD presentation is sourced from a 2K digital intermediate. The movie was, per the same linked source, photographed at a resolution of 8K, but considering the effects-heavy nature of the production the 2K master is not a surprise. The picture is stout and visually rewarding, offering a quality viewing experience that does indeed find greater textural intricacies compared to the 1080p Blu-ray. While not a wholly dramatic transformation, viewers will assuredly appreciate the obviously finer qualities that the UHD reveals, particularly the enhanced visibility and clarity of core elements, such as character skin and makeup and costumes, all of which are greatly accentuated from start to finish. The Blu-ray appears almost fuzzy in an A-B comparison, but even without conducting such an exercise, and simply watching the UHD in close proximity to the Blu-ray, the increases are clear. The sharper elements extend to natural environments and digital renders as well, but for all the complexity at this resolution there's an air of artificiality to the computer generated works which isn't quite so evident on the lower resolution Blu-ray. The HDR color palette brings not a radical departure from the Blu-ray's SDR tones but rather a tonal deepening that gives the image a slightly darker feel but also a more authentic color temperature as well as far greater color nuance that brings impressive vitality to robust greens and eye-popping costumes. Flesh tones are more stable and natural, less pasty and more dynamic and accurate. Black levels are also more dense and accurate without devouring detail while whites are more brilliant and pure. Don't be discouraged by the upscale source; Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a looker on UHD.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil arrives on the UHD format with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Listeners will find this track ever-so-slightly more full and favorable compared to the Blu-ray's 7.1 track. Considering larger effects, such as amassing armies and the business of readying for war; or more subtle effects, such as haunting blowing winds in chapter eight, reverberating voices in chapter nine, or a loudspeaker announcements heard through all the land in chapter 11, there's a distinctly greater spacial awareness at play in the Atmos track. This also includes the large-scale battle in chapter 16, with explosions popping all over and Fey flying overhead. In these effects there's a modest feel for greater dynamic range and low end usage compared to the 7.1 track. Neither are perfect but the Atmos track seems a little less restricted in terms of its losses within critical areas. On the plus side, and as is the case with the 7.1 track, there's no wanting for front end stretch and general surround integration. The track is more than capable of placing discrete effects in their proper position, and movement comes seamlessly and agreeably, with sounds matching on-screen action to eye-ear perfection. Dialogue is clear and centered. It is also well prioritized.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil's UHD disc contains no supplements, but the bundled Blu-ray disc includes the following extras. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Origins of the Fey (1080p, 3:02): A brief look at how the movie explores Maleficent's origins and her species.
• Aurora's Wedding (1080p, 2:31): An all-too-quick exploration of the movie's marriage ceremony sequence: guests, the dress, music, etc. It even includes some 1980s-style camcorder well wishes.
• If You Had Wings (1080p, 4:15): An interesting exploration of how Dark Fey's wings define and support the character both emotionally and in flight. It also looks at the visual effects that allow the Fey to fly.
• Maleficent: Mistress of Evil VFX Reel (1080p, 2:11): Juxtaposing pre- and post-visual effect shots with sporadic interview commentary.
• Extended Scenes (1080p): Included are The Queen Comforts Aurora (2:00) and Philip and Aurora Dance (1:32).
• Outtakes (1080p, 1:55): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Music Video (1080p, 2:43): "You Can't Stop the Girl" performed by Bebe Rexha.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil sometimes threatens to lose sight of story and focus on its visuals, which are these days barely distinguishable one from another and from one film to the next. Fortunately, it's not the soulless experience that is Nutcracker and the Four Realms, even if it often teeters on finding its identity in the computer rather than in the characters. There's a bit too much visual overflow in the movie, but Joachim Rønning and his high quality cast help keep the film in line with the story, upping the digital ante but also working to find meaning in flesh and blood. Mistress of Evil isn't the factory film it might have been, but a little less might have been more. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil looks terrific on UHD and represents a clear step forward from the 1080p Blu-ray. The Atmos audio requires upward volume adjustment but is not at all bad once there. Supplements are of little value. Recommended.